Season in Review: For one of the top prospects in the Phillies farm system, 2012 didn’t quite measure up to Jiwan James’ past seasons in the minor leagues.

First off, James’ average was the lowest that it has been at any point during his time in the Phillies organization. The Florida native hit a mere .249 in 111 games for the Reading Phillies and only posted a .291 on-base percentage.

The most eye-popping statistic was the drop-off in stolen bases for James. He went from stealing 31 bases with Clearwater in 2011 to only swiping 8 bags in 2012 with Reading. One constant was the fact that James was still being thrown out on almost half of his stolen base attempts. James was caught stealing 16 times in 2011 and 8 times this past season.

The Rule 5 draft is very simple: certain players signed at 18 or 19 are available to be picked up by other teams when they are left off the 40-man roster with at least four or five years within the organization.

This year, the Phillies decided not to make a pick in the draft. To them, there were no “Shane Victorino’s” hovering around this year.

Fearful of losing Jiwan James, they were lucky that he was not picked. James is 24 and hasn’t gotten past single-A ball yet. That doesn’t mean he isn’t a good player but teams see slow progress as a problem.

The Phillies did see a couple prospects picked.

In the Single-A phase, the Chicago Cubs took right handed pitcher Lendy Castillo. Castillo was a converted short stop and is a very raw talent.

In the Triple-A phase, the Phillies lost left-hander Andrew Loomis, third baseman Travis Mattair and catcher Francisco Diaz. The Phillies also made $86,000 in cash for the four prospects lost.

Today is the deadline for teams to complete their 40-man roster before the Rule-5 Draft next month.

A player eligible for the Rule-5 Draft are players signed at 19 or older with four years of minor-league service time and players signed at 18 or younger with five years of minor-league time.

So in order to fill out the 40-man roster, the Phils added right-handed pitcher Phillippe Aumont, catcher Sebastian Vaille, left-hander Jake Deikman and outfielder Tyson Gillies.

Missing from that list is outfielder Jiwan James. As Matt Gelb pointed out, James is 22 and has not played a game above the Single A class. That is the reason the Phils most likely left him off the roster, feeling he has a good chance of not being drafted due to his lack of higher-level experience. A player like Gillies had a good shot at being drafted.

The Phillies still do have one more spot left on the roster. Guys like right-hander Scott Mathieson, catcher Erik Kratz, infielder John Bowker and infielder Harold Garcia (torn ACL last season) are all at a risk of being taken in the draft.

Personally, Erik Kratz should not be let go. Mathieson still has no control, Bowker can’t hit and Garcia is 25, damaged and hasn’t even gotten past AA.

The first real play to focus on came in the bottom of the 4th. Cardinals pitcher Joe Kelly was cruising through the first three innings but he hit a snag in the bottom of the 4th inning.

After Kelly loaded the bases with no outs, Singleton stepped in to try and do some damage. But he looked very terrible at the plate in that at-bat, striking out on a pitch a foot from the plate for the first out.Read more of this post